Fresh Feeling

I love this song by the Eels. I woke up this morning irritated. I dreamt about some unsavory characters I thought I had left in the past. So after trying to get some sagely advice from my feisty gran ("uck, just forget about that buffoon. did u get a valentine's day kiss?" a-haha! ) I put this song on replay and went about my morning routine. Now I am feeling great again.

Little cousins are accusing me of being to formal on this medium. It's a weird feeling to be la-la-la-la talking, and then realize that sometimes some stranger is listening. So I am working on the voice I use.

I am working at the nation desk now, which has a different energy than the international desk. Tempers flare for lesser things, so it's a gregarious volatile crew. The use of english is different at nation. The copy changes quite a bit from the time the reporter sends it and until it hits the page. The articles are edited with readership in mind so it has to stay light and conversational in tone. There's an element of indian-english in the nation news that i have to get used to. When i edited i look to make the copy as clean as possible without completely altering the writer's voice. Usually at nation, when i clean it up the tone becomes too formal. I notice that nation articles are peppered with italicized hindi idioms, whereas international was english only. I have been looking at other papers to see if this works, this change in voice from section to section.

Anyway, to many of you- thanks for keeping in touch, to some of you- drop me a line. ;)